Marine Corps grounds aircraft for 24 hours following deadly crashes

In the wake of two deadly aviation accidents, the Marine Corps has ordered a 24 hour "operational reset" that will ground all of its aircraft to reinforce safety and training procedures among Marine pilots, air crews and maintenance teams.

The pause ordered by General Robert Neller, the commandant of the Marine Corps, will occur at the discretion of unit commanders over the next two weeks, so as to not impact air operations.

According to a Marine statement, the operational reset will "focus on the fundamentals of safe flight operations, standardization, and combat readiness."

"The intent is for flying squadrons to review selected incidents which occurred enterprise-wide and study historical examples of completed investigations in order to bring awareness and best practices to the fleet," the statement continued.

The safety stand down was ordered after three Marines were killed last week when a MV-22 Osprey aircraft crashed off the coast of Australia. In July, 15 Marines and a sailor were killed in the crash of a Marine Reserve KC-130T in Mississippi.

The last time the Marine Corps conducted such a safety stand down was in August 2016, following a series of fatal F/A-18 crashes.